AMONG THE ANGELIC ORDERS
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to change it. But
Sheila Fairfield
was such a good name for a dress
designer, which was what that blond thin girl wanted to be. So when
the terrible father and wicked grandmother finally allowed Sadie
Schoenfeld to graduate from Wadleigh, she became, as she liked to
say, a new person entirely-she "grew" a great deal-and the new
name was not the least part of her new identity. Of course, for Mrs.
Weiss, different motives were adduced-Sheila's dead mother, and
so
on.
Sheila worked in a photographic place for thirty dollars a week.
She paid six dollars for her room and put the rest of her money into
little budget envelopes, every single week. It was another of her habits
which so pleased Mrs. Weiss, who had already spent a considerable
sum buying different kinds of budget envelopes for her daughter,
and none of them was used. The room on 89th Street was drab and
a little pitiful to Gretchen when she thought of her own nice room–
but here at least one could breathe the
air
of freedom. It was a bright
neat place, though, and the light falling across the flowered couch
cover-Sheila's bed-revealed all day long the precious tree outside.
Like a girl in a Katherine Mansfield story, Sheila loved this room
because of the tree, and like such a girl, she thought a jar of pussy
willows transformed a furnished room into a salon. Sheila was what
people called "a very creative person." Under the window Sheila's
bookshelf invited attention after one had seen the tree. And, in fact,
Sheila told Gretchen that every evening after she had watched the
tree-at sunset, naturally-she was moved, by an unknown force, to
take something and read.
As
St. Augustine said, "Take and read."
There was a lot to choose from-RiIke,
The Prophet,
all the theosophy
pamphlets, Ouspensky,
Sight Without Glasses, Isis Unveiled,
all the
little Blue Books on science and electricity. And now, added to the
collection, the little varnished walnut given by Simeon, which opened
to reveal inside
it
a tiny booklet, "Buddhism
in
a Nutshell." Sheila
often read aloud to Gretchen. She also sometimes made silver jewelry,
and her dress designs, and also drawings of the tree and pictures of
her ideas. The drawings? Well, it was the only thing they didn't al–
ways agree about, the only uncertain part of their friendship. But
such disagreements were minor, compared with how delightful Gret–
chen thought it was to have long blond hair like Sheila, or a delicate,
thin, quick grace. Sheila often looked as if she had just come from
